The administration of President Barack Obama has asked for USD 18.6 million in fiscal 2010 budget money for new cap-and-trade regulatory fisheries programmes. The catch-share programme initiative would signify major changes in fishery management and an effort to preserve and recover wild fish stocks.
The amount requested is triple the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) bid for catch shares in its 2009 budget and about nine times over the USD 2 million it granted to catch shares last year, reports The New York Times. The NMFS received a budget proposal of USD 921 million – the proposal would amount to 2 per cent of this.
The proposal signals officials government backing for the management system, which is still in the minority but spreading ever since a federal moratorium expired five years ago.